Pól Ó Lorcáin
Paul Larkin

Chroniclers are privileged to enter where they
list, to come and go through keyholes, to ride
upon the wind, to overcome in their soarings up
and down, all obstacles of distance, time and
place.
Charles Dickens - Barnaby Rudge,
Chapter The Ninth

Why the silence from the media about Eamon Gilmore’s Sticky past?

NB – The word “Sticky” refers to a member or supporter of Official Sinn Féin (subsequently the Workers Party) – a rigidly Stalinist organisation, which came to adopt a two nationist approach to Irish politics - the opposite of Irish republicanism in other words.

Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore was formerly a prominent member and TD (MP) for the Workers Party.

Anyone who saw Ryan Tubridy’s disgraceful, not to say disrespectful, treatment of Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness on the Late Late Show recently, will understand that RTÉ has a problem. With some honourable exceptions, its senior journalists and broadcasters do not do “balance”.

Rather, they let their middle class Dublin 4 psychosis show when interviewing anyone from a radical, Irish Republican background; unless of course, the interviewee is a former member of Official Sinn Féin – later the Workers Party. If this applies, the interviewee will almost never be asked about his or her political past. This, of course, is good news for ex Workers Party politicians who now, effectively, form the leadership of the Labour Party. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

This article is a blurb for Keane's forthcoming series on RTÉ – “The Story of Ireland”.

The title is clear enough. Feargal Keane is going to tell us the story of Ireland - except that he isn’t and neither will RTÉ. Why do I say this? Why would I wish to disparage one of the great white hopes of Irish letters? A man who, in fairness, often writes beautifully and sounds great down a microphone.